For want of power
by NonExistantBreeze
Summary: The Doctor takes Rose home, but the TARDIS has other plans. They end up in 1920's London, and soon realise that the Doctor isn't the only alien on Earth...Just what is this new race, and why do they seem so dazed? 9Doc, my first fanfic! Please R&R! 3 is u
1. Chapter 1

**Summary-** The Doctor takes Rose home, but the TARDIS has other plans. They end up in 1920's London, where they soon find out that the Doctor isn't the only alien on Earth...9Doc

**Author's note- **This is my first fanfic, and was posted when I was really sleepy, so go easy on me if it turns out all over the place. Oh, and R&R, please!

**Disclaimer- **I don't own any of these characters, and if I did I would give you all permission to tell me off for not working on future Doctor Who scripts!

**For want of power-**

Chapter 1:

Sometime in 1923, a great crowd was forming outside a theatre in London. It started outside the closed doors of the theatre, then travelled all the way down the street on both sides; men and women all dressed in their best clothing, all wearing the same excited and impatient expressions on their painted faces. If you didn't know why there was such a crowd that night, you would not have had to venture far, for it seemed to be the sole topic of every conversation- The free, one night only performance of the world's leading opera singers was on tonight!

It had been the talk of the town for a whole month now, so it seemed that many people were relieved that the night had finally come simply to put an end to their suspense. So when the doors of the theatre finally opened to reveal shiny red carpet, the gigantic crowd didn't walk through; they barged in, everyone trying to squeeze in together, not wanting to be the unlucky ones without a seat. For even though they knew that the theatre was huge- almost one thousand seats- they weren't about to put its capacity to the test, as the crowd was quite spectacular.

When the theatre had finally been filled, and the late comers and the trampled consequently told to go home, the street in London that had once been full seemed quite deserted of people; such a contrast to what it had been no more than five minutes ago.

Inside the theatre was another story- an excited buzzing filled the entire room, people quarrelling over seats and others fanning themselves and whispering excitedly about the show that was about to begin. When everyone was seated, and the noise died down due to people running out of things to say, the lights dimmed to darkness and a spotlight appeared in the middle of the stage; the only light in the whole theatre. Every eye was upon the spotlight, and every person was giving their fullest attention to it.

The show had begun…

Rose was lying on the floor of the TARDIS control room, staring up at the ceiling and letting thoughts drift in and out of her head. She had been lying there for a while now, thinking about various things such as: How does the TARDIS seem, at first glance, to be completely silent, yet when you really listen to it, it seems to be almost loud, alive with noise and sometimes even sounds as if it's breathing? And the incomprehensible way that its inside was bigger than its outside, Rose would _never _be able to understand that one, even if the Doctor bothered to explain it to her.

Her mind then drifted toward the Doctor, who hadn't been seen since he disappeared downstairs half an hour ago saying something about having to fix a- well, something important anyway, considering the name that he gave it. He was definitely the most amazing man Rose had ever met, and she never found his sometimes-imposing presence overbearing. She had seen more this past month with him than she had seen her entire life and, now she really thought about it, this was also the longest amount of peace and quiet she had had since she first stepped onto his amazing ship. Apart from sleep of course, which proved much more of a chore to her now than it did before, though admittedly much more hard earned and blissful when she finally rested her head on her bedroom pillow.

Despite having the most fun than she had had in her life, Rose was starting to feel a little weary of their constant wanderings and adventures. She felt herself wanting to stop, not forever, but just for a while, in the same place and enjoy what was around her, rather than getting up and going before they had time to adjust. She felt dizzy, and it occurred to her now that what she would like best was to go back home; back to earth, back to mum, back to eating chips just for one night. She smiled at what the Doctor would say to that. Just then, his laughter started rising up the stairs.

"I did it!" The Doctor laughed, jumping up onto the deck and making the ground shudder. "I can't believe I actually fixed it!" He bounded up to Rose, still lying on the ground, and beamed down at her, clearly very proud of himself. "Guess what I've just done? Go on, guess!"

"I don't know," said Rose in return, the complete contrast to the Doctor's bouncy attitude. "You fixed whatever needed fixing?"

"Exactly!" He shouted, spreading his arms out in joy. "Thanks to my utter, untameable brilliance, the TARDIS will never land off course again! You know, I really don't know how you're able to live with my amazing mind." He added wistfully, making Rose scoff.

"So come on Rose, get up on your feet!" He said, bending down, grabbing her hand and pulling her up, making her feel even dizzier. "Wherever you want to go, we shall go, and go is exactly where we'll end up, I assure you. So where do you want to go?"

"Erm…" Said Rose, suddenly thinking telling him was going to be a lot funnier than she thought it was going to be before. "Well, I was hoping that we'd be able to stop off at home for, you know, about a night or something? It's been a while that's all."

The Doctor stared hard at her for a moment, then clapped a hand to his face and groaned. "You've got to be _kidding _me!" He moaned, and Rose had to stop herself from laughing at the look of defeat on his face. "Of all the times I could have fixed the one thing that was _stopping _us from going back and meeting lovely old Jackie is the time when you start feeling homesick!" He said, and slumped down on the TARDIS control console and stared moodily at the controls.

"Oi, what happened to 'your wish is my command?'" Joked Rose, enjoying the reactions she was getting out of him. He looked over at her, half exasperated, half amused, then finally sighed and gave in.

"Oh, all right, all right!" He said, clearly annoyed, "But keep in mind how fast and well we travel to Earth, thanks to my brilliance." He smiled mischievously, and started pressing all the controls in what seemed to be no order at all. The central column started to rise and fall, and Rose got the feeling in her stomach that she always got when she heard that sound; that they were about to explore a new planet. She started to feel a little disappointed that they weren't going somewhere new now that she heard that churning sound, but decided not to say anything about it because the look on the Doctor's face was too funny to let go.

After being shaken and pushed and shoved around the room by the TARDIS, it finally stopped and the Doctor laughed happily despite his low spirits about where they really were. "Step outside Rose, and you will see just how amazingly intelligent I am." He said, trying to act superior.

"Oh you're so full of it!" Snorted Rose, and walked over to the door, opening it up. When she saw her surroundings, she couldn't suppress her laughter any more. She keeled over, laughing hard, tears forming in her eyes.

"What? Why are you laughing? What's so fu-" Started the Doctor, striding up to the door to see what was the matter. When he saw it he stopped, and looked around his surroundings as well. Then-

"OH NO!" He shouted, making the birds fly out of the nearest tree.

Their surroundings?

London. Earth.

1923.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N- **Sorry I took so long with my updates, but school has begun again and homework threatens to take over my whole life. Hope you understand, and hope you like this chapter as much as I liked writing it!

**Disclaimer-** Yeah yeah, don't own nothing, you get it by now.

**Chapter 2-**

"Umm…Doctor?" Asked Rose, half tentatively, half amused. She had controlled her laugh a little, and now plucked up the courage to confront him about his slight mistake. His eyes were closed, his face was tomato red and he was breathing rather heavily. He looked slightly dangerous.

The Doctor didn't respond, evidently thinking of a way he could survive this ordeal, and scrape through with his pride still intact. Rose went on.

"I don't think this is London," she said, now enjoying the effect she had on him. "Well, not _my _London anyway. Oh, don't get me wrong, I reckon it's definitely Earth, unless…" she paused for emphasis, "It's just a world that _looks _like Earth, I mean, how should I know what my _home _looks like? After all, you're the one who has the _brilliant mind_ and all..."

"Oh alright, _alright!_" said the Doctor loudly, throwing up his arms in defeat and still not quite staring Rose in the eye. "Yes, this is Earth, as you so adequately pointed out, yes this is London, your _home, _and YES, I messed up, so right now we're about eighty years before the time we're supposed to be in! Happy?"

"Yeah, I am, thanks," Said Rose, smirking. "I've always wanted to see this point in time, so if you don't mind I'm going back to the TARDIS wardrobe to put on your best 20's dress. See ya soon!" She said, skipping back indoors and giggling quietly to herself.

When she came back outside, wearing a typical yellow 1920's dress and black hat, she saw the Doctor leaning against the TARDIS, his arms folded, with a moody expression on his face. Feeling that he had gone through enough, Rose tried at some sympathy.

"Come on Doctor, no hard feelings!" Said Rose, closing the door, slipping her elbow around his and steering him forward. "Look on the bright side, you don't even have to see my mum!"

"But why does the TARDIS keep doing that?" Burst the Doctor as they crossed the street. "Why is it that nine times out of ten it'll end up landing way off course? I thought I finally understood it, I thought I fixed it! And now this?"

"Well," said Rose, a little nervously as she wasn't sure how to say what she thought without insulting him, "maybe it, er, isn't the TARDIS's fault?"

The Doctor turned and stared at Rose, clearly understanding what she meant. "Rose Tyler," he said, shaking his head, then suddenly stopped, his attention grabbed by something behind her.

"What?" said Rose, turning around. What she saw would have, at first glance, seemed to be quite normal. Hordes of people were making their way out of the theatre that the TARDIS was parked next to. But as Rose and the Doctor watched, they realised that there were some very strange things about the crowd. For one, they were all absolutely silent; not a word or whisper escaped any of their mouths. Another, even stranger thing was that they were all walking in the same direction- across the road, through the alleyway and behind the large bookshop. And as if this wasn't odd enough, they all had the same expression on their face, or rather, the same _expressionless_ look on their face. Never had either of the two travellers seen such a crowd of expressionless people, all making their way to the same place, the only sound from them the thump of their shoes on the ground as they marched.

Rose instinctively drew closer to the Doctor, alarmed at the sight before them. They were no more than a metre away from them, yet the crowd paid no attention to the Doctor or Rose, as if they couldn't see them. As the crowd began to disappear, Rose regained some of her rather restless courage and started forward, about to tap an old woman on the shoulder, when the Doctor pulled her back.

"Don't, Rose," He whispered, "they could be dangerous."

So the crowd walked on, and in another few seconds the last person, a small child, disappeared behind the store. Not for the first time, that London street was all of a sudden empty again, except for the Doctor and Rose. Looking up and down the street, they realised that they were the only ones to witness this odd incident. They looked at each other, shrugged, and followed the crowd hand in hand, all past annoyance dissolved.

"Where are they?" asked Rose as her and the Doctor both walked into the other, darker alleyway that the crowd had disappeared through less than a minute ago. They expected to see the huge throng gathered there, or at least walking down the alleyway to another place, but no one was anywhere in sight. Even the marching sound that they had made was gone.

The Doctor's eyebrows were furrowed as he looked up and down the alleyway. "Rose, you go check to see if they're down there, and I'll check up here. They can't have just disappeared from the face of the Earth."

He walked down the alleyway and into the darkness, searching for the crowd, but saw nothing that gave a clue to their whereabouts. He walked on, eyes squinting in the darkness, when he heard Rose scream from behind him.

He wheeled around and ran towards the sound, not being able to see her. As he came closer he could make out her form sitting on the ground, and bent down to see what had made her scream.

"What is it? Are you alright?" He asked, and he could see her rubbing her head with a confused expression on her face.

"I'm fine, but I think I just crashed into something solid, I can't make out what it is though." She said, staring out in front of her.

The Doctor stood up and looked ahead as well, but unlike Rose, who he could see the shape of, he could see nothing remotely solid in front of him. He edged slowly forwards, his arms outstretched, and with a few small steps his hands came in contact with something cold and, undoubtedly, solid. As well as this, around his finger shone a grey, metallic colour, which seemed to be what Rose had bumped into.

"What the…" said Rose from behind him, and the Doctor heard her getting up from the ground and coming towards him. The Doctor put his whole hand against the metal, and in return it showed more of it.

"Doctor, what _is _that?" Rose asked from behind him, not wanting to get too close. The Doctor put his other hand against it, and stared hard at it for a moment before replying.

"It's a spaceship." He said, and then remembered the species that had made them. "A spaceship from the planet Utaris, judging by the material. But what would they want with Earth?" He said to himself. He looked up at the star-strewn sky in thought, then back at what he could see of the spaceship. "Well," he said, smiling in the direction of Rose, and Rose could sense his partly resigned, partly excited grin upon her, "Only one way to find out! Help me look for the door."

But just as the Doctor's words escaped his mouth, a faint whirring sound came from the direction of the spaceship, and the part of it that they could see began to dissolve into darkness, until there was nothing left. The sound disappeared, and the Doctor, feeling around for the spaceship again, came in contact with nothing but a small wind that rustled his leather jacket.

"Okay," Said Rose, sighing slightly, "what now?"

The Doctor dropped his arms and turned around in the direction of Rose. "Back to the TARDIS, and off to the planet Utaris." Replied the Doctor, and strode off into the darkness, back to the alleyway they had entered through, with Rose following in his wake.

**A/N-** Hope you like it! I'll try to be quicker with my updates, but I'm sorry if I take a while. And don't forget to review!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N- **Again, I'm SO sorry for the delay, I'll try to be a more faithful writer in the future! Hope you like it!

**Chapter 3-**

Once they were back in the TARDIS, Rose found she had some questions about the whole affair that they had found themselves in. "So Doctor, who exactly are these alien things that we're looking for?"

The Doctor, not looking up from the controls he was fiddling with, said "They're Utarians, from a planet far from Earth called Utaris. The species who made the spaceship were probably Kanifids, the most advanced species on the planet. They were one of the last races to discover space travel, except of course for you stupid apes." He said, grinning a mischievous grin at Rose, waiting for her reaction to his last sentence. She poked her tongue at him. "Go on."

"Well, need I say any more?" He said, pulling down a lever, making the central column rise and fall. "Help me with this, will you?" He shouted over the sound, trying to hold onto five different buttons and levers at once. Rose hurried over and held them down while trying desperately to remain on her feet.

"Yeah, so if they only discovered space travel less than a century ago, they would hardly have been able to travel to somewhere on the other side of the Universe, would they?" He said, running around to press other buttons.

"Doesn't seem likely, no." Rose replied, trying to keep hold of the levers as the TARDIS rocked and shook.

"Of course, I don't know much about Utaris, so it may be possible that they advanced hugely in a short amount of time." He said, and with one last, humongous lurch the TARDIS landed, and the Doctor and Rose were thrown off their feet and dropped onto the floor in a heap. The Doctor sprang up onto his feet again and dusted off his jacket. "I highly doubt it though." He said, and helped up Rose who was finding it hard to get up in her 20's dress and high heels.

"You'd be better off changing into something else, you know." He said, marvelling at the fact that, in his nine hundred years of existence, he had still not been able to comprehend woman's love of fashion. "It doesn't look too comfortable."

"It's alright." She said, picking up her hat and fixing it back on her head.

"Suit yourself." The Doctor shrugged, and made his way to the TARDIS door. Rose hurried forward and blocked the doorway. "One more thing," she said, "exactly how alien are they?"

"Oh, you know, they've got stone skeletons, purple eyes, but other than that nothing too dramatic." He said, and reached behind Rose to open up the TARDIS door.

Outside the world was terrifying, yet strangely beautiful. Rose was reminded of Earth in the Victorian era, but there were obvious signs of advanced technology, and, looking around, there were no signs of any life. The sky was a brilliant blue, but even though they could see no one, the Doctor and Rose had that horrible feeling that they were being watched.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me." Said the Doctor, looking around in disbelief.

"What?" asked Rose, the feeling of eyes upon her intensifying. The Doctor stepped further out into the open and looked out at his surroundings. "This isn't Utaris." He said, clearly astonished. "I can't believe it, we've gone to the wrong planet _again!_ Stupid, _stupid_ TARDIS!" He exclaimed, stamping his feet on the ground in annoyance. Rose cringed at the racket he was making; in the complete silence that surrounded them any kind of sound felt to her as if they would be caught and punished by some strange life form.

"Okay, great," said Rose, barely talking, "Can we leave this place, then? It's kinda giving me the creeps." But the Doctor hushed her up, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion again.

"Wait a moment," he said, looking again at his surroundings, "Where _are _we?"

"What, don't you know?" Rose asked, taking it for granted that he knew every planet in the Universe.

"No, I don't." He said. "I've never seen anything like this before. I mean, there's some things here that are common on other planets, but it certainly can't be any of those, and this," he said pointedly, walking over to what looked like a purple vine, growing through the cracks of the brick in the ground, "this is something I've never _ever _seen before, not once! Blimey! I wonder what the people look like?" He added as an afterthought.

"Well I'm sure they'd look really crazy and all, but there's people's lives that need saving, remember? On Utaris? Let's go back there, yeah?" Said Rose, finding herself shivering despite the warm weather.

"Wait, before we do that I need to go back to the TARDIS and find out where this place is. Won't be long." He said, hurrying back to the TARDIS.

Rose was more than willing to accompany him back inside as well, and was just turning around when something caught her eye. She looked back, but saw nothing. While she was staring at that place, however, something else caught her eye, just out of her focused vision, and she looked around at that place too.

The third time this happened, Rose became completely unnerved, and turned and ran straight to the doors of the TARDIS, when from behind her a strong hand shut over her eyes, and she could only let out a short shriek that pierced the silence like a knife before another hand, as strong as stone, covered her mouth. She squirmed and fought, but her abductor was many times stronger than she, and she could feel herself being dragged away from the Doctor at an alarming speed, her high heels scratching the brick.

The Doctor heard Rose shriek from within the TARDIS and whipped around, hurrying to the doorway, his hand reaching for his sonic screwdriver. When he was outside again, he saw no one in sight, the silence threatening to engulf him again.

"Rose?" He called, his two hearts pounding in his chest. When no sound of her answered him he groaned. "Typical." He grumbled, and strode fast in the direction that he hoped she would have gone.

But while he walked the silence was interrupted again, not by a scream, but of a faint whirring sound…

XxXxX

The Doctor looked around in the direction of the sound and saw the same spaceship that they had seen on Earth materialising on a flat space in between a bakery and a butcher. He stopped walking and hid behind a wall covered with the same vine, peering out from behind it.

The door of the spaceship opened silently and from it came five beings in black Victorian suits. They looked too tall to be human, yet apart from that there seemed to be nothing different about them. The Doctor, however, recognized the race at once._ But what are they doing here? _He wondered, as the aliens marched soundlessly up the street they were parked on, away from the Doctor. The Doctor let out a sigh of relief that they weren't heading his way.

Soon there was more movement from within the darkness of the ship, followed by a woman in a red dress and high heels, walking from the spaceship and then moving in the same direction as the aliens. After her came a horde of humans in the same kind of 1920's attire, all silent, all expressionless.

The sight of all those people still sent shivers up his ancient spine, but the Doctor couldn't help grinning at the humans they had been looking for. "Fantastic." He said under his breath. The Doctor made a mental note to say thank you to his beloved TARDIS for taking them to the correct place when, or if, he returned to it, before deciding to follow the people from behind.

When he made to move, however, he found that he could not move his leg. He looked down, annoyed, and saw that both his legs were tightly bound by the same vines that stuck to the wall behind him. The Doctor struggled to free himself, but the vines held tight to his legs, and even as he struggled, the vines crept quickly up his legs, pulling his hips to the wall.

The Doctor, panicking, tried to reach for his sonic screwdriver, but the vines had already grabbed his fingers and entangled them in their ferocious grip. He tried to wrench himself apart from the vines, heaving with all his strength, growling with the effort, but all that seemed to do was make the vines hold tighter to him.

Unbeknownst to the Doctor who was busy getting away from the vines, the horde of humans had all left the spaceship and had walked away. The last to appear out of the spaceship was five more aliens, who shut the door from behind them and followed the rest. Before they got that far, the aliens were alerted by an unearthly noise, and they all turned around to find the source. They spotted the Doctor, still struggling, and made their way towards him.

When the aliens came within the Doctor's vision, he stopped fighting and stared at them, breathing heavily for the vines pressed against his chest. They too were expressionless, and for a moment they just stared back at the Doctor. Then at the same time, the aliens all in unison, all with monotonous voices, said "You have been detected."

The Doctor, whose patience was wearing very thin, managed to gasp out a very, very naughty word at the aliens, before passing out at the lack of air.


End file.
